Andrew Bogut after the Warriors’ 5th straight loss: “At the end of the day, you’ve got to stop your man”

Andrew Bogut was fuming. There was no doubt of that and he certainly wasn’t hiding it.

The Warriors’ center sat at his locker, his left ankle in a tub of ice, and he glowered the whole time we were asking him questions, about 20 minutes after the Warriors’ home loss to Houston–their fifth straight loss before the beginning of the All-Star break, which lowered their record to 30-22.

A few minutes earlier, coach Mark Jackson told us that he wanted his players to go home, celebrate the first half of this season, then come back rested and refreshed for the final 30-game sprint.

Bogut sounded OK with that–Jackson gave the team the same message right before he talked to us–but he also was fuming; fuming about the Warriors’ defense, mostly, and clearly there was the subtext of his frustration that he’s not close to where he used to be and hopes to get again.

If he’s going to lead this team, it’s going to be like this: By being the angriest loser, the player most likely to blast his teammates’ efforts (and his own), and, if he can raise his game, by showing the rest of the team what he’s talking about.

That last physical part might be the most questionable, since nobody knows if Bogut can get back to playing 30-35 minutes a game and what he’ll play like if he does.

But the emotional, fiery, ornery part? Bogut’s leading the way, and I think the Warriors do need it as they move into the last stretch of their most important season in decades.

Let’s see how everybody reacts to it.

—–ANDREW BOGUT gaggle transcript/

-Q: Can you point to any one thing that has caused the team’s defensive lapse the last five games?

-BOGUT: It’s hard to say. I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to stop your man. We have a great shell team defense. But I think at the end of the day, it’s you one-on-one in a battle with the guy you’re guarding, you know?

You can’t just keep hoping for help and funneling to help–against All-Star players like James Harden or someone, they’re the exceptions.

But I think we need to take a bit of saying ‘I’m going to stop my man,’ so we don’t have to get into help rotations and then all kinds of crap happens when you start rotating, you’ve got bad rebound coverage and (inaudible)…

-Q: Mark Jackson just said this is time for you guys to celebrate what you accomplished in the first half and relax. How hard or easy is that to do now, on a five-game losing streak?

-BOGUT: Well, it’s very hard. It’s a very bitter feeling because we deserve a much better record (than we have).

Turning a negative into a positive, none of you guys–not a lot of people in our locker room would’ve said at the start of the season said we’d be 30-22 at this point of the season. So take that for what it’s worth. It’s not an excuse by any means. We’ve got a lot more work to do.

We’ve had a lot of slippage over the last five to 10 games, I feel personally. And we’re not there–we’re not who we think we are.

I think we thought we were maybe a little better than we were. Probably heard the comments made by someone on our team, ‘We were the hunters early on in the season. I think now we’re the hunted.’

So it’s a different mindset for us, when a team’s coming out there trying to kick our (butts) and we’re not responding.

-Q: So much of the early-season success was built on defense. Did you feel that was sustainable or maybe did you think something like this could happen?

-BOGUT: No, you never foresee these types of things. But thankfully we can sustain a five- or six-game losing streak right now because we did all the work early. If there’s a team below us in the Western Conference that had this type of losing streak they’d be in a lot of trouble right now.

We have that in our back pocket. Can’t use it as an excuse because the game’s creeping up on us. I think we go into the All-Star break somewhat bitter about how we finished, but at the same time come back and keep building on our wins.

-Q: You had 7 rebounds in your first stint, did you feel especially fresh early?

-BOGUT: Yeah, I was fine.

-Q: Did you feel particularly good early on?

-BOGUT: No, just a couple of lucky bounces. Yeah, felt fine all game.

-Q: Are you on schedule to play back-to-backs after the break, pretty much full-go?

-BOGUT: Yeah, I feel like I should hopefully get the reins taken off after the All-Star break.

-Q: Do you feel some personal responsibility from here on–this team got this far largely without you and now it’s a little bit on you to carry them down the stretch?

-BOGUT: A little bit. People are going to say what they say and people are going to look at me coming back and say, ‘Hey, look we started losing.’ That’s everybody’s assumptions.

I mean, I can only do what I can do out there, that’s rebound, set screens, if guys are open, get them the ball, be a team guy. We’ve got great shooters on this team. But you’re going to have to watch the tape to know where our problems are. It’s 1 through 12…

Like I said earlier, our defense one-on-one is horrendous, 1 through 5, not just 1 or 2 guys. 1 through 5. We get beat it’s like, ‘Oh help, someone help me.’ And then…

-Q: That’s the way this team has been for a few years.

-BOGUT: Yeah. And we did a good job of it early. I think it’s been a little bit of slippage lately. Like we’ve just got to take ownage, we’ve got to take it personal with the guy that we’re guarding. And then knowing that there is help back there.

But I think sometimes we rely too much on the help to come and then a good team like Houston with so many shooters, you start over-helping and they’re going to eat you up.

-Q: Is there any specific example of that in this game?

-BOGUT: Yeah, you can watch the whole tape. There’s plenty. Get a DVD from our film coach and you’ll see it the whole night. I mean, you’ve got to stop your man at the end of the day.

Like I said, there’s some world-class players, you know, the James Hardens, Kobe Bryants, LeBron James, that obviously you’ve got o cater a team defense towards because there’s no one guy that can guard them.

But we had most guys… whole positions we had guys going past on dribble drives and then creating driving lanes and then you have to help and that creates rotations.

-Q: What’s possible for you the rest of the season–is it 100%?

-BOGUT: I’m not going to comment on percent. I’ve learned early with that. I’m playing. I’m not hurt. I’m playing. I’m out on the court, so I’m fit to play. I’m not going to sit here and mope that my ankle’s sore or that it’s not sore, or the last game it felt great, this game…

I’ve learned from that with my elbow. If I’m out there in uniform, I’m fit and ready to play. If I’m not…

-Q: Can you be the vocal leader, the guy who rallies this team?

-BOGUT: Uh… I’ll try. I’ll definitely try. It’s hard because I obviously wasn’t part of the first 30-40 games.

Defensively, definitely. And I take it personal because our defense is (bad) right now. Part of that is me–the back line there, and I take it personal that teams are scoring 110 points on us the last five or six games. So I need to do a better job of clogging up the lane.